National statistics

How many people come to the UK each year (including visitors)?

Updated 7 December 2023

‘Immigration system statistics, year ending September 2023’ content page.

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Data relates to the year ending September 2023 and all comparisons are with the year ending September 2022 (unless indicated otherwise). Additional comparisons are also provided with the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period and for longer-term trends.

1. Passenger arrivals to the UK

There were an estimated 129 million passenger arrivals from outside the Common Travel Area (CTA) in the year ending September 2023 (including returning UK residents).

This was 35% more than the year ending September 2022 (96 million), this reflects an increase in global travel after restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic were removed in early 2022. The latest passenger arrivals number is over four-fifths (88%) of the total number of arrivals in 2019 (146 million), the period immediately before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the Home Office published additional detailed statistics on air arrivals to the UK over a period when travel was severely reduced. A full account of the pattern in air passenger arrivals over the pandemic period can be found in the last edition of the report ‘Statistics relating to passenger arrivals since the COVID-19 outbreak’ (Home Office, August 2022).

2. Grants of Entry clearance visas to individuals outside the UK

Only certain nationalities (‘visa-nationals’) are required to obtain an entry clearance visa before coming to visit the UK, which is one reason why there are considerably more passenger arrivals than visas granted. Additionally, passenger arrivals will include British nationals.

For the year ending September 2023, there were 3,383,446 visas granted, 30% higher than the year ending September 2022, and 9% higher than the year ending September 2019, prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase over the last year was primarily due to 660,565 (+53%) more grants of Visitor visas, but also due to more grants for:

• work visas (including dependants), up 205.343 (+54%) to 585,774
• study visas (including dependants), up 48,315 (+8%) to 643,778, including sponsored and short-term students
• family visas, up 44,484 (+117%) to 82,395

The increase in visitor visa grants will reflect the phasing out of restrictions on travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while other visa increases could be due to a combination of the changes in travel restrictions as well as the introduction of new visa policies. The Home Office has published additional analysis of the potential impact of changes to travel on work and study visas in ‘Recent changes to visa numbers in Home Office data’ (Home Office, February 2023).

Figure 1: Total entry clearance visas granted, year ending September 2014 to year ending September 2023

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Figure 1 shows that the total number of visas granted rose to 3 million in September 2019. The number then fell significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to below 700,000 in March 2021. Numbers are now higher than pre-pandemic levels with over 3.3 million visas granted in the year ending September 2023.

Figure 2: Total entry clearance visas granted, by visa type, year ending September 2023

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Figure 2 shows of the (almost 3.4 million) visas granted in the latest 12 months:

• 57% were to visitors
• 19% were for students (including dependants)
• 17% were in work routes (including dependants)
• 3% were for family visas and permits
• 4% were for other reasons (including grants of leave on the Ukraine Schemes and the British National (overseas) route)

3. Visitors to the UK

Many nationalities, including US nationals, do not normally require a visa to visit the UK; consequently, there are considerably fewer Visitor visas granted than visitor arrivals.

There were 1,914,778 Visitor visas granted in the year ending September 2023, 53% higher than the year ending September 2022.

Visitor visa grants have continued to increase post-pandemic but are still below the peak in the year ending September 2019 (2,370,239).

In the year ending September 2023, Indian nationals accounted for the highest proportion (27%) of Visitor visas granted, followed by Chinese nationals (19%), Turkish nationals (6%), Pakistan nationals (5%) and Nigerian nationals (5%).

The top nationalities for Visitor visas granted in the year ending September 2023 are:

• Indian nationals, up from 512,096 in September 2019 to 518,195 (+1%)
• Chinese nationals, down from 636,237 in September 2019 to 354,862 (-44%)
• Turkish nationals, up from 81,917 in September 2019 to 116,092 (+42%)

Additional information on visitors to the UK is published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in its publication ‘Overseas travel and tourism statistics’.

4. About these statistics

The statistics in this section provide an indication of the number of people who enter the UK.

The data does not show whether, or when, an individual arrived in the UK, what they did on arrival to the UK or how long they stayed in the UK.

Many nationalities do not normally require a visa to visit the UK. As a result, they will be counted in the passenger arrivals data but not in the visa data. A list of designated nationalities referred to as ‘visa nationals’ who do require a visa to visit the UK can be found in Immigration Rules Appendix V: visitor rules.

For several reasons, data on passenger arrivals is not directly comparable with data on Entry clearance visas granted. A summary of what each dataset counts is provided in section 4.1 and section 4.2.

4.1 Passenger arrivals

Data on passenger arrivals relates to the number of arrivals into the UK. The data includes British, EEA and Swiss nationals, as well as non-EEA nationals. For non-EEA nationals who are subject to immigration controls, more detailed information is available on their nationality and purpose of their journey up until 2018.

Passenger arrivals are counted each time an individual enters the UK. Where an individual enters the UK more than once in a period, they will be counted each time they enter (but if they arrive each time on the same visa, they will be counted once in the visas data).

Visitor arrivals data included in this topic is based on landing cards completed as people cross the border. In light of the introduction of new digital systems at the border, the use of landing cards was reviewed. The review resulted in the decision to remove the need for non-EEA nationals to complete a landing card on arrival into the UK. Further data relating to visitor arrivals will not be available until an alternative method of collection is developed.

4.2 Entry clearance visas

Data on entry clearance visas in this section refers to the number of visas granted for all reasons within the period. References in the statistics to ‘visas’ will also include entry clearance ‘permits’, such as EEA and EU Settlement Scheme Family permits, or Frontier Worker permits. If an individual was granted multiple visas in a given period, this will be counted as multiple grants in the statistics. If an individual entered the UK multiple times within the period for which a visa was valid, this will be counted as one grant in the visa statistics, but multiple arrivals in the passenger arrivals data.

Year-on-year comparisons of the number of decisions can be affected by quarterly fluctuations in the data. Such fluctuations can be examined in more detail in the quarterly data that is available in the published tables.

Several known factors may have affected the number of applications and outcomes of visit-related visas over time. For example, the Home Office launched a 2-year Chinese visa pilot in January 2016 for Chinese nationals. The increase in longer-term Visitor visas may affect the number of subsequent re-applications by Chinese nationals.

More information on non-visitor arrival and visa data by category is included in ʻWhy do people come to the UK? To work’, ʻWhy do people come to the UK? To study’ and ʻWhy do people come to the UK? For family reasons’.

For more information on specific routes to the UK, including Ukraine Visa Schemes and British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) visas, see the ‘Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK’.

5. Data tables

• Sponsorship summary tables
• Detailed sponsorship datasets
• Entry clearance visas summary tables
• Detailed Entry clearance visas datasets
• Admissions summary tables

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